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blueMarine – Free digital photography workflow software

blueMarine is being developed as an open source digital photography workflow environment. It’s written in Java so it’ll run just about anywhere – Windows, Mac and Linux should be “easy” to support.

I haven’t tried it yet and I’m not a fan of Java apps in general but has anyone else tried it? They say they’re close to a beta release so it might be worth a look soon.

Start thinking of an opensource application like Aperture or Lightroom that enables you to organize, develop, print and publish your photos. Pretty standard stuff nowadays.
Let’s go on and let’s think of the workflow. For the existing commercial applications the workflow starts just after shooting the photo and ends with a print on paper, the photo archived and maybe a web gallery published.

Judging by the screenshots, it’s come a long way, even supporting geotagging of images and “Gannet”, a plugin for the amateur ornithologist photographer. (found on the GIMP Users list)

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“Letâ€™s go on and letâ€™s think of the workflow. For the existing commercial applications the workflow starts just after shooting the photo and ends with a print on paper, the photo archived and maybe a web gallery published.”

There is professional workflow software already that does all that and more. Even a feature pack for it that lets you encrypt your client’s images on a CD with a viewer, so your client can conveniently order their prints from you by email. They can even design their own wedding album, or a portrait composite with the program included on the encrypted CD.

The images won’t open any way other than in the integrated viewer, so your clients can’t run down to their local 60 minute photo place and get their prints made. You maintain control of your copyrighted images.

I think the software still works like shareware, where you can install it and it will work for 30 days or so, without you having to pay anything to try it.

A photographer friend of mine has been using the software for a couple of years, now, and swears by it, says she couldn’t run her business without it. I’ve been helping her part-time, designing wedding albums, and that part of the software is fun!

“The images wonâ€™t open any way other than in the integrated viewer, so your clients canâ€™t run down to their local 60 minute photo place and get their prints made. You maintain control of your copyrighted images.”

Well, if that’s what you want, then I guess you’ve got it. Not all photographers want to hang on to people’s photos forever. When we were married, the photographer kept the negatives, and now years later, he’s still got them, and they’re not doing him or us any good. Now that we’re running a photography business, we’ve decided we want to serve our customers best interest, by providing them with images they can use however they want. They still come to us for professional leather albums and framing, but if they want to make some prints themselves, good for them.

Anyways, Bluemarine looks pretty cool. We are currently using DigiKam, Gimp and some homebrewed scripts to automate parts of our workflow. If Bluemarine works well, it’d be nice to have a single app to work in from picture import to DVD/web/print export.

I like where you are going with this program inview of Adobe becoming the new Micro$oft. It certainly has possibilities. I was surprised that it does not support jpeg files! Nor does it support my Sigma SD-10 raw files.